Cold Medicine
by LightWingDragon
Summary: An accident leaves Harper injured, Chapter 1 -3 WIP, Please r
1. Dylan Vs. The Floor

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, or Andromeda. They all belong to their respective owners. The purpose of this story is to entertain fans of the show. I am not making anything of monetary value by writing this story.  
  
  
  
Cold Medicine.  
  
Harper lay; working under an access panel, fixing small problems around Andromeda was a familiar task to him. Dylan had on occasion asked him how he managed to do the job of a whole team of engineers, his reply being that he had the rest of the crew help when something serious went wrong, other than that it was just about the same amount of work as on the Maru, its systems were far less reliable than Andromeda's, well, except the slipstream drive, for some unknown reason that thing never worked right for very long.  
  
Mostly Rommie's droids could take care of most of the repairs, but he preferred to do them himself as he is a lot faster and he can learn about all of Rommies systems, he was a genius, he was, he knew, he had to teach himself most of what he knew, mostly because his parents died when he was young.  
  
He never talked about his past, just like Trance never talked about hers, at first it had driven him crazy, she was, and still is, such an enigma. But he understood that she had her own reasons to conceal her past, he could understand that and she knew that he knew; it was an unspoken promise that they both held with high regard.  
  
There were moments that their friendship was tested by his near discovery of her past, well more like partial discovery. But he had often, all too readily given up at any hint that he was causing her distress, he had learned only a little about her past, more than he let her know, but still only a small part, it seemed to him that she had a dark past and had done things that she regretted. But it didn't matter, she was one of his dearest and closest friends and he trusted her completely, you cant fake the kind of friendship she showed him and the others, neither was she as harmless as she let on.  
  
That was another thing, his work gave him time to think, to ponder the mysteries of the universe, but trying to solve the Trance puzzle, was futile, every time he got a lead, he gave it away, like the time he gave her the library because he knew it made her nervous, because it had info in it about her, he said it was because it was safer that he was away from it, but he only gave it to her because it would make her happy.  
  
Right then his thoughts were interrupted by the intercom:  
  
"Harper, Please meet me on the command deck." Dylan commanding voice came through the intercom.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, sure thing boss."  
  
Harper knew that Dylan couldn't hear him, but it made him feel better from being dragged away from his work and his train of thought.  
  
On the command deck there was the usual, Dylan wandering back and forth to various consoles, Beka at the 1st officers station as they were not in slipstream, and Tyr at the tactical station.  
  
Dylan then walked over to Harper to discuss why he had been called up to the command deck.  
  
Dylan had an ability to stay calm in the direst of circumstances, and was able to look nonchalant even when he was angry, but during the time he had been on Andromeda, he had learned to read Dylan's expressions finely enough to tell what he was feeling, to a degree anyway. Today however he saw nothing out of the ordinary in the captain's features and no panic evident in the rest of the bridge crew.  
  
So, whatever it was that Dylan had called him up here for it couldn't be anything too important, probably some errand he wanted him to do.  
  
"Mr.Harper, Remember that spaceport we visited a few days ago?" asked Dylan.  
  
"Sure" replied Harper, they had to stop at a spaceport to restock and get some parts, nothing major.  
  
"Well it seems that there was an outbreak of some kind of flu while we where there, and I'm sending the whole crew down to med deck to get a check up, you first because you are the most likely to have caught it" Dylan said  
  
"Damn, I hate being ill, I really hate being ill, thanks for the concern boss" Harper said turning for the door.  
  
He hated going to med deck as well, not because Trance would be there; but because he hated being ill, but him would rush down there if there were the chance that illness could be avoided. It was for that reason that particular room held bad memories for him, it was where he was when he was ill, he would spend weeks on end in agony in there.  
  
Trance tried to cheer him up the best she could but despite this it still wasn't the place he liked to be with his purple friend.  
  
Harper walked through the door to medical to find Trance standing by an examination table, obviously expecting him.  
  
"Hey, babe" said Harper cheerfully as he walked up to her.  
  
"Good morning Harper" said Trance looking up from the console and smiling.  
  
"I hope it is," said Harper  
  
"I doubt that you contracted the illness, and even if you did, it's not serious." Trance said, understanding.  
  
"Yeah, but I really don't like being ill Trance, I hate being here." Harper said  
  
The smile on Trances face disappeared and turned to that of slight hurt. Harper noticed.  
  
"But I'm glad you're here when I am" He said in a friendly tone.  
  
Trance smiled at Harper, Harper grinned back.  
  
"Okay Trance, babe, lets see it Seamus Harper has finally managed to avoid an illness for once in his life." Harper joked, ending the short staring contest.  
  
After Trance had finished scanning him she turned to him, with a slightly amused slightly apologetic look on her face.  
  
"Don't tell me Trance, I've caught it haven't I, damn it, why, every single time!" Harper said in an annoyed tone before flopping back onto the examination table.  
  
"Well actually Harper, you don't have the illness that broke out at the spaceport, you actually have a cold, but it hasn't started to show yet. Sorry." Trance said showing a much more truthful apologetic smile."  
  
"Well, its better than some contagious flu I suppose" Harper said disappointed  
  
"Well I'm going to get back to work before the cold start to show itself" See you later Trance.  
  
"Harper wait." Trance called after him.  
  
"What?" He asked.  
  
"Don't you think it would be better if you stayed here, even a cold can be fatal to your weakened immune system." Trance pleaded with her ever- difficult patient.  
  
"Trance, I really hate being bedridden, ill come back when my symptoms start to show, promise." Harper said defiantly.  
  
"Okay, but as soon as they do, come back here, please." Trance stressed the last part, she knew that he often listened to her more than a lot of people, but was still reluctant when it came to his healthcare.  
  
"Hey, don't worry your little purple self about me, I'll be fine, and I'll come back here as soon as the cold gets worse." Harper said, he then turned and exited before Trance had a chance to plead with him not to go.  
  
  
  
After Harper had finished the repair he was working on before Dylan had called him he got up, took a deep breath, he noticed then that his nose was becoming blocked.  
  
"Damn, I don't think its worth going to medical yet, I can still get in a few more hours of work before then." Harper thought to himself.  
  
"What's next, oh yeah, the faulty sensors in section 7A." Harper remembered. He then set off to his next task.  
  
On the bridge there was a sudden alarm sound the bridge crew were all alert and working away at their consoles at a significantly faster rate than normal.  
  
"I'm detecting two small ships exiting ships, both appear to be armed." The holographic image of Andromeda said, as the ships could be seen exiting slipstream in front of them"  
  
"Battle stations!" called Dylan, Beka abandoned her station to Rev, who had walked onto the bridge a few seconds prior, and sat down in the pilot's chair, ready to do some fancy manoeuvres if necessary,  
  
During the few seconds of the crew getting into battle readiness, Andromeda had gathered more information about the ships.  
  
"The ships are engaging each other, they seem to have no interest in us, for now anyway." The ships AI said.  
  
"Neither ships is a match for us, it is my theory that their fighting has nothing to do with us and we should give them some space, and return fire if the winner turns their attention to us." Recommended the AI.  
  
"Agreed, take us to a safe distance" Ordered Dylan.  
  
"You got it" replied Beka, obviously just a bit disappointed that it looked like she wouldn't get to do anything very impressive.  
  
However, as the Andromeda began to move away from the skirmishing ships, one of the ships scored a direct hit on one of the other ships engines, having lost one engine; the ship made a sharp curve, and smashed straight into the Andromeda, with an explosion that shook the ship and sent some of the bridge crew to the floor.  
  
While the crew of the Andromeda was recovering from the jolt the other ship made haste its escape, as the pilot believed that the Andromeda would retaliate, the ship got into slipstream quickly and vanished from the sensors.  
  
"Damage" called Dylan, knowing Rommie would give him a full damage report.  
  
"Extensive damage to section 7A" reported the android. "I've sealed breaches in the hull," the android continued.  
  
"Rommie put me through to Harper" Dylan said, wanting to get the engineer on the damage as soon as possible.  
  
"Yes sir" Rommie replied, Dylan knew that the comm. Link had been opened by the time she had finished speaking.  
  
"Mr.Harper?" questioned Dylan.  
  
"Mr.Harper, respond." Dylan repeated, at hearing no reply he turned to Rommie. "Where is Harper?" he questioned to Ai turned crewmember.  
  
Rommies eyes glazed over for a second as she used her internal scanners to locate the engineer, this took less than a second and she turned back to Dylan.  
  
"I cannot locate Harper"  
  
"Why, you didn't say your internal sensors were damaged." Dylan inquired, stunned by the lapse of his ships AI.  
  
"My sensors appear to be working fine, apart from the faulty ones in section-…" Realization struck her.  
  
"Harper must have been in section 7A during the attack working on my faulty sensors!" Rommie said suddenly panicked.  
  
"Oh no" said Dylan quietly, before running to section 7A as fast as his legs could carry him there.  
  
When Dylan arrived in the desired section he realised just how bad the damage was, rubble was everywhere, pipes burst, conduits broken and wires sparking with contact with other wires.  
  
Dylan ran around searching all the section not finding Harper anywhere, he finally came to a stop near a pile of rubble, smoke coming from underneath it, Dylan would not have paid much attention to it, had there not been a thin river of blood trickling out from the rubble forming a puddle in the middle of the deck.  
  
Dylan rushed to it and began moving the largest pieces of metal and throwing them to the side, after removing several pieces, he reveals the unconscious face of his engineer, removing more pieces he discovers several large gashes on his body but most alarmingly a gash on his head a sharp piece of metal impaling him in the left shoulder.  
  
Dylan activated his communicator and spoke into it with urgency,  
  
"Trance, get down here, medical emergency" he didn't wait for a response, he knew she would be on her way, he turned his attention back to removing the rubble from around Harper.  
  
As Dylan had not had time to get Rommie to send the message to Trance alone the message was heard by everyone on board. Beka immediately ran for the door, and was soon well on her way to help her friend.  
  
Trance however was already there when Beka arrived, Dylan had the rubble almost out of the way, but the situation was made worse by the fact that the metal impaling Harper was still attached to the deck.  
  
At seeing Beka's arrival Dylan immediately gave her a task,  
  
"Beka, get a laser cutter, we cant risk pulling him off this thing, we'll have to cut it off the deck!" Dylan called to her.  
  
Beka took off down the corridor in search of a laser cutter.  
  
"Rommie!" Beka called while running aimlessly searching the corridors.  
  
"Yes, Beka" Asked Andromeda.  
  
"Where is there a Laser cutter in section 7A?" Beka inquired, out of breath.  
  
"There is a laser cutter in a storage cabinet in corridor 4" the disembodied voice of Andromeda said.  
  
Beka ran directly to corridor 4 as fast as she could  
  
When she arrived back she passed the laser cutter to Dylan and tried to get her breath back.  
  
It was at that moment that Trance arrived with a stretcher, her face turning into that of horror as she looked down at her almost dead friend.  
  
Dylan began cutting the shard from the deck, doing his best not to cut through Harpers shoulder. After several seconds of cutting the metal came free.  
  
Both Beka and Dylan heaved Harper up onto the stretcher and began the trip up to the medical deck.  
  
Harper felt no pain as the blackness that was his vision turned to a blur of colours, that slowly formed into a picture, he could see his crewmates at the sides of his stretcher, he couldn't hear a sound and he couldn't move he could only see what was happening around him.  
  
His vision then went back to black, an immeasurable amount of time later his vision came again, he could see Dylan pick him up and moving him to put him onto a bed, he tried to speak, to asked what was going on but couldn't, this time he could hear but only distorted sounds, he could hear voices, one he could recognise as Beka, and the other Trance, but their words were as blurry as his vision, he heard Dylan speak as he put him down onto the bed, but he couldn't make out his words either.  
  
With the contact of his body to the bed his vision again became black.  
  
  
  
Trance had worked fast on his shoulder, and had given him painkillers, antibiotics and other medication that would help. She had also hooked him up to a life support machine and had given him blood. She had done all she could, but Harper was now in a coma.  
  
All they could do was hope that he would wake.  
  
That night the two beds by Harpers were both occupied, one by Trance on his right to keep an eye on him overnight in case something happened or he woke up.  
  
And Beka, who saw Harper as a little brother and had insisted on watching ever him, occupied the bed to his left. Both Beka and Trance were awake, neither of them could sleep through worry, both hoped that the only sleeping occupant of the room would wake up. 


	2. Bad Dreams

Chapter two: Bad Dreams.  
  
Harper looked around him, the scene was familiar, he was in a tree, suspended high above the forest near his home on earth, he had spent a lot of time practicing climbing this particular tree, a lot of people here had their own hiding places, and this was his.  
  
Him being as small and light as he was, he was able to get high into the tree, further than many slavers or Magog were willing, or able to climb.  
  
This spot also allowed for a good vantage point over the forest.  
  
This night was familiar to him. It was dark, and a larger slaver ship could be seen, far off in the distance. This was the largest slaver attack that had happened in the history of Harpers village, but there was no way of keeping accurate records, so it might not have been. But it was the largest in decades at least. Luckily, a member of the village had seen the ship early and warned the rest of the small community.  
  
The whole population of the village followed the standard procedure, and scattered into the woods.  
  
Now above the forest he could see fires, and various coloured lights from weapon fire, he could also hear the screams of the fleeing humans below him.  
  
On this occasion Harper had been lucky, no slavers had chased him and all other slavers that came close to his position looked at his tree and decided that it was not worth climbing up to see if there was anyone hiding up there.  
  
After a few hours the screams and the gunfire died down, a few fires still burnt, but the rainfall the day prior had meant that it was unlikely that a fire would last very long.  
  
Soon the gunfire and screams stopped completely, and shortly after that the engines of slaver ship came to life, and the ship lifted off.  
  
Harper breathed a sigh of relief, he was safe, and slavers barely ever left one of their own. After the ship was gone the villagers would make their way back to the village, and in the morning there would be a meeting to see who had been taken.  
  
The slaver ship took off, Harper expected it to fly off into space, but was alarmed when it began to speed towards him, he started to climb down the tree as fast as he could, but the ship was too fast the tree shook violently as it roared past.  
  
The shaking of the tree caused Harper to lose his balance, he fell, and as he fell through the air he screamed. As he hit the floor his vision turned to black.  
  
  
  
Trance look over at Harper for the millionth time that morning, and saw the same thing she saw every time she had looked before, Harper lying there unconscious. It had been two days since the accident; the crew morale was bad, and getting worse by the hour.  
  
She rubbed her sore eyes; they were sore from fatigue and from crying.  
  
Dylan tried not to show it but he was worried sick, he tried to keep the crew as happy as possible under the circumstances, but the rest of the crew could see how worried he really was because of the frequency he called Trance to see how Harper was doing.  
  
Beka was worse, she had seen Harper in a bad state before, times when he had almost died, but they hadn't been as bad as this time. She would have been the one to constantly check on Harper, but Dylan had beaten her to it, in a way she was glad, it meant that she could keep a check on Harper, without having to muster up the courage to ask, she half expected to hear the news that he had died.  
  
Rev had concealed himself in his quarters, meditating and praying for Harper, there was not much else he could do for him, but as it was all he could do he did it as much as he could, he just had to hope it helped.  
  
Tyr felt angry, he had grown attached to the crew of the Andromeda, it was better than being a mercenary, he had a purpose a mission, and it was like being in a pride again. What made him angry was that, he will not be able to punish the person or persons responsible for his injuries, as he had not been able to fire on the other vessel when it had fled, and the pilot of the other ship was now a bad hood ornament for the Andromeda.  
  
Although the boy was physically weak, he was smart, smarter than most of his own kind, so in a way he was strong as well. Tyr also admired the boy's determination, although he wouldn't be the one to admit it.  
  
Andromeda was also worried about Harper, she had begun as a simple computer AI, but some while ago, before the fall of the commonwealth, before being trapped in the black hole, she had evolved, become more than just a computer program, she had begun to feel the 'emotions' that the crew had told her about, she had fallen in love, or what she believed to be love, with her captain, she had never told them about the emotions that she felt because they already treated her like a person, and she thought that they would treat her differently if they knew.  
  
She was worried, luckily, nobody, even Dylan had noticed that she was becoming more human. Although she showed non-programmed behaviour in her avatar, they had assumed that Harper had done it, but he hadn't.  
  
Being in almost contact with only a small crew meant that she was getting very close to them.  
  
She would miss Harper greatly if he died, his sense of humour had served greatly for enhancing her own, and they had the game they played where he would come on to her, which he didn't really mean, well not anymore anyway, and then she would blow him off.  
  
Not only was he a great friend to her, he was also her chief engineer, and he would also be greatly missed in that sense too, and he was very good at what he did. He was a key member of the crew.  
  
And there was absolutely nothing that she could do but wait to see if he woke up, she wasn't used to being helpless and she hates it when she is.  
  
  
  
The blackness that engulfed harpers vision changed, there was a suddenly a white light that started in the centre on the darkness and spread out, then the bright white began to become alive with a swirl of colours. After a few moments the colour settled, to become a somewhat blurry picture, a few seconds later the picture came into focus, until he could clearly make out the ceiling of the med deck.  
  
This was strange, the first time Harper had fallen from the tree, one of the villagers had heard him scream, and had found him unconscious, the villager had carried him to the village, and he had woken in his 'old home' with his family around him. This time had been lucky for them, the slavers took none of their family, and Harper had been relieved then and happy.  
  
But this time it was different, why?  
  
Then the memory of the accident two days ago came flooding back into his mind like rain, slowly at first then quickly, he remembered working on a sensor relay, and then hearing a huge explosion and getting knocked off his feet. He had briefly felt a pain in his shoulder, but almost instantly fell into unconsciousness.  
  
Harper tried to move but pain shot through his body, so he relaxed and closed his eyes till the pain went back to a dull ache that he had only just noticed existed.  
  
It was at that moment that Trance look over at him; he seemed the same, unconscious and relaxed. She walked over to his bed and lent over to look at his face, he looked slightly different but she didn't know how, he was still alive and breathing.  
  
"Please, Harper, wake up" said Trance said softly, not for the first time that day.  
  
"But Trance, babe, I told you I like to sleep in sometimes" said Harper, his voice horse from non-use and slight thirst.  
  
Trance leapt five foot into the air with shock; she hadn't seen that one coming.  
  
When she came back down to earth she stood in shock for a second then a wide grin spread across her face and she enveloped Harper in a hug.  
  
"Ow, much as I appreciate the attention Trance, a lot of my body feel painful at the moment" Harper said somewhat strained.  
  
"Oh, sorry!" Trance said apologetically and blushed slightly.  
  
However its difficult to tell when Trance is blushing, as she is already purple, but Harper was one of the only two people in the known universe that could, the other being Beka.  
  
"Don't worry about it, you can hug me all you want when I don't have cuts and bruises all over my body" Harper said. And Trance smiled in return.  
  
"I'm glad your awake, Harper, the whole crews been worried sick, even Tyr has been worried, we thought that you might not wake up" said Trance her face turning sad as she spoke.  
  
"Don't worry Trance, I wouldn't do that and leave you here all alone" Harper said, his voice still horse.  
  
Trance notices his voice and stands up straight "I'll get you some water" she said, and she walked across the room and picked up a recovery patients cup that had a straw in the top, so that if they couldn't sit up they could still drink, it was a simple design, but effective.  
  
Trance then walked back over to Harper and let him drink some water from the cup while she held it, she sensed that he was reluctant to move, obviously from the wounds and bruises that he had received.  
  
"So, how long have I been out?" asked Harper, his voice smoother than before but still not back to normal.  
  
"You were out for two days, everyone was getting more and more worried, that reminds me! They will want to know that your alright" Trance said realising that the rest of the crew will probably be worried, except for Rommie, who probably already knew because she had been keeping a very close eye on him the whole time since the accident.  
  
She had felt partly responsible for his accident, as she had been unable to find him in the sensor blind spot that he was in at the time.  
  
Trance asked Harper if he would be all right while she went up to command and told everybody. Harper replied that he would be fine and Trance left out of the door.  
  
Harper relaxed again and closed his eyes, he felt surprisingly tired, considering that he had been asleep for two days straight.  
  
But he couldn't fall asleep again yet, he knew that the crew would come down as soon as they could to see him, he was sure Beka would be back with Trance in a few minutes.  
  
Harper took a deep relaxing breath, the memory of the nigh the slavers came still fresh in his mind, nightmares of his past occupied his mind every night, with some exceptions.  
  
A couple of times he had been knocked out cold, and hadn't dreamed anything, and once when Trance had recently joined the crew and he was trying desperately to find out about her secret, he had a strange dream about her.  
  
Not knowing the answer to something always annoyed him, until he solved it, but this time it had just faded into the background over time.  
  
Harper suddenly noticed that he had been thinking a lot about this lately, but he didn't know why.  
  
"Nah, its just a coincidence" Harper said aloud to himself.  
  
"What is?" Asked Trance as she came into the room, Harper had been so deep in thought that he hadn't noticed to door open.  
  
"Nothing, just thinking about something" Replied Harper turning his head to look at her.  
  
Trance was standing near the door, alone, this surprised Harper, because he had expected Beka to be with her.  
  
Trance saw his questioning look and answered it,  
  
"Beka was in the mess hall having something to eat, she's going to visit you as soon as she has finished, I told her not to rush her food but I get the feeling that she will" Trances face showed a little frustration.  
  
Trance didn't like it when people openly ignored her advice, Harper knew, he had done it himself enough times, which was stupid because he didn't know an occasion when she had ever been wrong.  
  
"As long as she doesn't hug me, that hurts, and Beka has a stronger grip than you, I've challenged her at arm wrestling, and lost, too many times to forget that." Harper said  
  
"I'll try to make sure she doesn't hug you, not for a while anyway" Trance said smiling at Harpers regular wit, which apparently was not in as worse state as the rest of him.  
  
"Thanks" Harper said  
  
"So what were you talking to Andromeda about before I came in?" Trance asked, her smiled changing to a more puzzled look.  
  
"I wasn't talking to Andromeda, I was just talking to myself" Harper said.  
  
Trances face started to show worry, Harper wondered why, then he realised what he had said.  
  
"But not in a mentally disturbed person way, just a occasional 'think out loud' way." Harper said calmly to calm Trance.  
  
"Oh, that's okay, you had me worried for a second there" Trance said relieved.  
  
"You worry to much about me, babe" Harper said smiling at her.  
  
"So what where you thinking about then?" Trance asked. Her face again changing to one with a quizzing look.  
  
Harper rushed to think of something to say, he couldn't tell her that he had been thinking about how much he had been thinking about her.  
  
Luckily he didn't have to rush a response as Beka chose that exact moment to walk through the door.  
  
"Harper!" Beka cried as she rushed up to him and enveloped him in a tight hug before Trance had a change to stop her.  
  
Harper cried out in pain and Beka jumped back, apologising for her lack of thought, perhaps it was not so lucky that Beka had walked through the door at that moment after all.  
  
It would have been less painful for a start. 


	3. Playing poker and losing at Tennis

Throughout the rest of that day Harper had been visited multiple times by the whole crew, Beka had been running back and forth from the command deck all day.  
  
Dylan had visited twice, the first time soon after he had woken up and another time later on, just to see how he was getting on.  
  
Rommie had visited 3 times, once to see how he was, the second to ask him how to fix her arm that had stopped working, and a third time carrying her own arm where she had done it wrong and Harper had to give her a step by step guide while he lay there.  
  
Rev had visited once for a long while to talk to him and see how he was doing, but had left when Tyr had come through the door.  
  
Tyr had visited once; he had said that he came to see if their chief engineer was still alive because it could mean the difference between life and death if their ship was left without a proper engineer during an attack.  
  
He had also said that he didn't like making repairs and told Harper to get well soon. Harper had thought that it was touching coming from Tyr.  
  
  
  
It was late and Harper was begging to get tired.  
  
"You look tired" Trance said looking over at Harper.  
  
"I am a little tired" Harper said, then yawned as if on cue, that showed he was more tired than he was willing to admit.  
  
"You look really tired" Trance said frowning. "I think that you've had enough visitors for today" Trance said.  
  
Beka chose that exact moment to walk through the door, and was surprised to be suddenly pushed back out the door by Trance.  
  
"Visiting hours are over" Trance said remembering an old earth term that Harper had used when he had been sick on the Maru once.  
  
Harper chuckled at the scene, and was surprised that Trance had remembered the term that he had used such a long time ago.  
  
"But, what, hold on!" Beka complained as she was ushered out of the door, once she was out Trance closed the door.  
  
"I'll be back in the morning then!" Beka could be heard calling out from behind the door.  
  
Harper began laughing, that was one of the funniest thing he had ever seen Trance do.  
  
"Now, Trance, that was being assertive!" Harper joked.  
  
Trance smiled, she was obviously pleased that Harper had found it as funny as she had hoped.  
  
"I know, I remembered that thing you said about 'visiting hours' being over, what was that about anyway?" Trance asked  
  
Harper looked surprised, he had thought that Trance knew what visiting hours were.  
  
How had she remembered that term from so long ago when she didn't even know what it meant?  
  
"Oh, it was a old earth hospital thing, they wouldn't let the visitors in after a certain time in the evening" Harper told her, he wasn't completely sure he was right, he had only seen it in one movie.  
  
"But how did you remember it from so long ago?" Harper asked Trance.  
  
"Well it was just the way you said it at the time, and it's hard to forget one of your special brand of jokes" Trance said, her answer strangely rushed and she moved a little awkwardly as she spoke.  
  
But Harper hadn't seen her move as she had been behind him so he couldn't move to see her without making some aching part of his body ache more.  
  
"So, Trance what exactly happed to me, all I remember was an explosion, where we attacked?" Harper asked.  
  
"Not exactly, two ships came out of slipstream and were fighting each other" Trance began to explain. "Then one hit the other and then it crashed into Andromeda" Trance continued trying to explain.  
  
"Oh, I think I understand now" Harper said, realising that Trance hadn't been on command at the time and hadn't seen it first hand, so she was therefore not a good source for finding out the details, but she had given him the general idea of what had happened.  
  
"Exactly had bad was I injured?" Harper asked her, he had preferred not to ask her until now, he wasn't even sure how he had come to be lying in the medical bed he was in now, but now knowing how bad the accident had been, he wondered how badly he had been hurt, although Trances, and the rest of the crews attitudes showed that he couldn't be that badly hurt, or crippled.  
  
Once when he had injured his leg on the Maru, Trance had been unsure if he would walk again, and they had acted completely differently from how they had this time, so he wasn't that worried. I addition, they would have probably told him by now anyway if it was that serious.  
  
"I could have been worse if Dylan wasn't so good with a laser cutter, he told me it was difficult cutting you off the deck without injuring you further." Trance said, wincing a little when she was recalling the event mentally.  
  
This didn't have a positive reaction on Harper, his eyes went wide with shock, and Harper knew her well enough to know that she was not joking.  
  
"Cut me off the deck!?" Harper half asked, half shouted. Grimacing a bit as he did so, this didn't sound good.  
  
"Um, you were kind of, umm…a little bit, uh, impaled on the deck." Trance said, nervous of what harpers reaction would be.  
  
"Impaled!!" Harper shrieked, horrified. "Where?" He demanded more than asked.  
  
"Um, your, uh, shoulder" Trance said looking nervous.  
  
"So, that was what that pain was!" Harper said, a little more worried than he was letting on.  
  
"Will I ever be able to use that arm again?" Harper said, trying to make out that he was trying to make a witty joke, but his face and tone betrayed him, Trance could see he was worried and gave him a reassuring smile.  
  
"Yes Harper you'll be able to use your arm, at most there will be a scar." Trance said, trying to reassure him, it was a success and he relaxed back down.  
  
"What else is there in the 'Make Harper suffer pie'?" Harper asked.  
  
"Um, just some cracked and/or broken ribs, some lacerations, several deep scratches, a lot of small cuts, a load of bruises and a fractured leg." Trance listed the injuries quickly, so that Harper didn't have time to dwell on them.  
  
"Oh, and that would be why pain shoots through my body like a pinball machine" Harper sighed. "Its going to be a long recovery, babe" Harper said to Trance, he hated being stuck in the same room for long periods of time.  
  
"Well at least well spend some quality time together," Trance said happily.  
  
"Yeah, at first, then you'll start getting sick of having me around all the time" Harper said to her "everybody does" Harper continued morbidly.  
  
"Why do you think that Harper?" Trance asked him "Sure, you can be annoying at times, but your not that bad" She continued trying to get to the bottom of Harper's previously unnoticed emotions.  
  
"Uh, just forget it okay. Harper said, wanting to avoid having to talk to Trance about his problems.  
  
"But, you're my friend, you know that right?" Trance asked him  
  
"Yeah" Harper said quietly.  
  
Trance decided that it was pointless to push the matter further at that time, it wasn't like one of the times when he was quickly stopping by because he had been told to, or one of the seldom moments that they confided with one another. He was going to be in medical for quite a long time, there was no need to rush things.  
  
It made her feel guilty, but she enjoyed it when he was ill and they spent time together, but mostly it was spoiled by harpers various illnesses affecting his behaviour.  
  
Injuries of a physical nature meant that he'd be himself, she would enjoy being with him, not like those times when he'd been ill before and had begun believing that the walls were talking to him.  
  
Why? She began to question herself. Why did she enjoy his company more than any of the rest of the crew? What was it that was different about him, was it that---  
  
"Hey!" Harper called, Trance was startled, she hadn't noticed that she had gotten lost in thoughts and daydreams.  
  
Harper had noticed that she hadn't responded to find her staring off into space, he was worried, she didn't do that very often, and it usually because she was concerned about something.  
  
"Oh, ah, um, sorry" Trance said, still startled.  
  
"Are you okay Trance" Harper asked her, not expecting a straight answer, you never get that when asking Trance personal questions.  
  
However, curiously Trance never seemed to lie, whatever said, it was usually the truth, but sometimes cryptic or vague, but almost always, both.  
  
"Just thinking" Trance said, her eyes glazing over for a second, but then returned to look at him.  
  
Harper knew that if she wanted him to know what she was thinking, she would have told him; Trance spoke her mind, when she wanted to. There was no point asking her, but where was the fun in that?  
  
"What about?" Harper asked her, she looked a little caught off guard, as though she hadn't been expecting it.  
  
"What?" Trance said, Harper thought that she was stalling for time.  
  
"What were you thinking about?" Harper asked again, making sure to pronounce the words carefully so that she couldn't say she didn't hear him clearly.  
  
"Uh I was just thinking about how long you would be here" Trance said, it was true, but did not cover the entirety of the thoughts that she had in the few seconds she had been in her own world.  
  
"I'll be here that long huh?" Harper asked, he was slightly annoyed, tomorrow the boredom would set in, usually he would just have to wait it out, but he sensed that he would be here longer this time, he would have to find a way to pass the time, he couldn't just talk to trance, even she couldn't go on talking forever.  
  
  
  
It was late evening, three days later. Harper had finally managed to move, he could now sit up and would use the beds controls to higher the bed so it was easier to prop himself up.  
  
Harper had spent several hours jacked into Rommie earlier that day, he had gotten bore and had decided to play poker with her, that had become boring less than an hour later, playing poker with two people got boring fairly fast, they had then played tennis, Rommie won, it was hard to lose when you controlled the world around you.  
  
For a while he and Rommie had talked about thing that he could do while he was recovering.  
  
She had suggested reading, but while Harper did sometimes enjoy reading, he wasn't the type to make a hobby out of it. And even if he did, it would have left trance with little to do.  
  
Trance did have jobs to do around the med deck, but in her spare time she usually went to hydroponics, she still went there to do her necessary work, but while he was recovering she spent most of her free time with him, he had noticed and didn't want her to be bored while he was enjoying himself, well, as much as he could anyway.  
  
After Rommie had suggested reading, she had suggested something else, this time the activity was more of a thing that Trance and Harper could do together, watch movies.  
  
That was one of the things about being on a warship that just happens to be run by one of the most sophisticated computers ever created, and also having a database full of vast amounts of data, you often had a lot of media stored away somewhere, and Andromeda had it by the bucket load. And in there was a vast selection of movies that spanned from before humans had walked on mars, to very last, which had been not too long before the fall of the commonwealth.  
  
However, after the fall of the commonwealth, such things became unimportant, survival was the first thing on everybody's mind.  
  
A large amount of people have never even heard about them, over time they had been forgotten, the copies had all but been lost, those that remained were considered antiques, and fetched high prices at auction, no ordinary person could get access to them, true, there was one or two movies that had been copied by people that owned one of the rare copies, and were widely distributed. It probably began with the original owners making copies for their friends, then their friends making copies for their friends, and so on.  
  
Those that had survived however, were ones that had been made not long before the fall of the commonwealth, Andromeda had a vast array that had never been heard of before, even to the few people that collected them, a few select people that had the riches to do so.  
  
Harper and Trance were going to watch one in a short while. Harper had asked Rommie to search and see what movies might interest him and Trance.  
  
Rommie had picked 'Star Wars', a movie that Andromeda said was a great hit, but was now all but unknown. But she said it appealed to her because it reminded her of their situation, the title that is, she had said that the rest held very little similarity.  
  
Andromeda had asked had also said that 'Star Wars' was made up of several parts, and had asked him if he wanted to watch them in the order that they were made, or the intended story chronology.  
  
Harper had asked her why they had made the films in the wrong order, she had replied that the she didn't know, but she guessed that it was because the writer didn't know how to start the story at first and had started writing from the middle, and the end, and had then gone on to write the start.  
  
Harper didn't understand how anyone could write a story without knowing where the plot came from or was going to.  
  
When Andromeda had told Harper about the time the movie was made he had wondered how the writer, had been able to write about intergalactic war, when at the time, humans hadn't even begun to explore space and before the genetic engineering programs started.  
  
Harper had decided not to watch the movies in the order that they had been made but instead watch them in the order of the plot, he had decided that the story would probably be easier to understand that way, because being unaware of any of the events that led up to the first films release, he made have missed something that made the film understandable.  
  
  
  
At the moment, Trance was at hydroponics finishing he daily duties, so that they could watch the film; she was looking forward to it. It was a good opportunity to learn some of harpers human 'slang' as he called it. It wasn't often that she got much time to spend with Harper, not since they came to the Andromeda anyway, so she was going to savour every minute of it, it was only when he was sick that they would spend the most time together, it was also difficult, because he had a lot more chances to ask her about her past, and although she was good at avoiding Harper's questions, she couldn't keep that up forever.  
  
Luckily, he hadn't shown much interest in her background lately, perhaps he was finally giving up, or perhaps he was planning something, she found it easy to deflect his simple questions, but the more time Harper spent thinking about what he was going to ask, the harder it was to avoid them.  
  
She hoped that he had given up, she didn't like withholding the truth from him, even if it was for his own good, he's already too close, he may already know, but that was unlikely.  
  
She just had to hope and be prepared.  
  
And hope he wasn't thinking of a way to make her reveal he secrets. 


End file.
